Welcome again for another free preview of New Middleport: The Senses of Weiland Kershaw. This is the fourth chapter and you can catch up by checking out the first three chapters in my previous blog posts.
Chapter 4 (Ruling
Forces)
Inna throws the scissors down toward the girl’s feet so quickly that
she jumps back and an enforcer has to grab her before she falls from the
stage. The twisted smile comes with a
hearty laugh from the death show ruler as she must have gotten the answer she
was looking for. There’s such
satisfaction with what she has done that I know it’s one of the few times Jay
and I ever question a good laugh.
“Someone must claim this man now that this one has ended his
display.” There is a bellowing from the
crowd, but no one comes forward to the wooden steps of the stage to accept
responsibility. Normally, anyone that is
claimed is too far gone to survive, but the rulers do not want to waste
hospital space so they want the citizens to keep the soon dead until they can
be tossed in a designated alley for trash disposal.
Inna feigns surprise to the lack of support for the bleeding mess on
the already stained deck of the stage.
She reaches to her holster to snap loose her pistol. It’s not often that you see a gun, especially
since the current rulers have banned all firearms to those not deemed
responsible. I have only seen guns a few
times in my life and the majority of the time they were within a ruler’s reach.
I do not question Jay’s motives when he mouths “Jay Leads” and starts
walking toward the stage. I look to Cole
to signal pursuit as we follow Jay’s lead toward the stairs. The sudden movement gathers notice from
everyone, and even I must admit that I do not appreciate the attention
particularly from a ruler. “I see that a
few men are willing to take this man in until he bleeds out or infection takes
him. Here, for your duty to New
Middleport.”
Inna notions for some enforcers to throw a sack down to the ground
once we’ve gotten to the foot of the steps.
It falls with a clank and I already know that there are canned
vegetables inside, and possibly some bread.
“And don’t forget why you came for your food.” The enforcers don’t need any motivation to
pick up the Lawson kid and heave him down the steps. He’s airborne halfway down the steps until he
makes contact and rolls to the bottom.
At least the fall knocked him unconscious.
The display is over and the enforcers are binding up the girl to take
with them, while others break down the stage.
Why do all of that to take a little girl? Jay and Cole are already helping Lawson up
before I can think about it anymore.
“Where to Jay?” is the only thing Cole gets out before I realize what he
had in mind. Jay glances at me and I
realize that there’s no time to debate if we’re going to save his life. It’s forbidden to take a display to a
hospital unless you want to be put on display yourself, so I answer for Jay, “I
guess we’ll all find out together.”
We head back toward building 1013 in Lockport. It’s one of the only times I’ve ever heard
Jay confused in my life, “Why are we going back to your apartment?” I give a tired smile to Jay and Cole as they
both stare at each other for a second as they hold a near lifeless body. I’ve told Jay everything about me, with the
exception of one thing. “Let’s go,” is
all I say as I hold the door to the building open.
We all walk down the main hallway toward the elevator. The main hallway has nothing but condemned
apartments, an elevator that stopped working before I was born, and another
hallway. The other three keep going
around the right corner down to the end of that hallway that has a side
stairwell before they realize I’m not following them. At least one of them has a good excuse not to
notice my absence. There is a pause as I
can tell they’re waiting for me to open the stairwell door when I notice the
shuffle of feet to turn and notice I’m not there. There’s another pause and then a quick
scurrying down the hallway back toward the elevator. They turn the corner to find me leaning up
against a wall with, I can only imagine to them is, a wicked smile. I must admit that it’s almost unbearable to
contain my laughter.
It has become a rule with us not to talk within open spaces of a
building. Hallways in particular have a
nice way of echoing noise to those that may be near enough to be listening,
which is why I hold a finger to my smiling lips to make sure they don’t go
berserk with questions of “What the hell are you doing?”
I’m three quarters of the way down the hallway in front of a condemned
apartment. This apartment, like all that
are labeled condemned, is boarded up with so many boards that you can’t see any
part of the door.
***
“Why are all of the doors boarded up dad?”
“That’s a very important question son.
Do you think you’re old enough for the answer?”
“Yeah!”
My dad holds a finger to his smiling lips as he laughs at my youthful
exuberance. I can already tell that he
questions telling a seven year old the information he’s about to tell me, but
he whispers it to me just the same.
“Weiland, you need to understand that the world we live in is not the
way a human being should be living.
We’re not meant to be walking around afraid for our lives.”
“But I’ve never seen you afraid.”
“That’s because everything I do is to make sure you are safe. Now I will continue if you don’t interrupt,
because I can only risk telling you this one time.” My only recognition is an encouraging nod, so
he knows that I will be nothing less than attentive.
“The rulers do not care about the citizens of Port. They have only two interests; power and doing
whatever it takes to keep it.” He tells
me about the previous ruler when he was a teenager, and how everything was
different. They used to have
non-processed meat, real vegetables that don’t come from a can, showers that
don’t automatically turn off, and amazingly no displays. There was a time when people could feel safe,
and not only in their homes, but walking down the street.
“I used to walk down the street with your grandfather to the local
market to buy food for dinner. Food
wasn’t handed out as wage for working or for turning in a suspected rebel. No, everything was very different. People were free to speak and laugh loudly,
play music and dance, walk a pretty lady to her door after going for a long
walk in the country.”
My eyes grow in sudden fear of what was being said. “Yes Weiland, we
were allowed to leave the city as we pleased.”
The very thought of leaving the city just wasn’t within my comprehension
at such a young age. I knew from the age
of three not to go beyond any pylons that surrounded the city. A bright red glow comes from the pylon tops
throughout the day, but is most distinguishable during any evening hour.
Dad continued by telling me the rulers had these pylons installed as
their first act of “civil ordinance.” The
rulers did not state what these pylons did and it only took a few deaths for
the entire city to realize that the city was encased in an invisible field of
electricity. Once my senses were good
enough, he took me to the fence. He
wanted me to recognize the sound of the fence and continued to take me to
various areas of the city until I could recognize the fence from a quarter mile
away. This took months of trips all over
the city, but once I satisfied my dad that I could hear the fence before seeing
it, I wasn’t to return until I was older.
The conversation with my dad took all night long. There was so much for him to tell and there
was so much that I wanted to hear. He
tried to get me to rest so he could tell me more in the morning, but I insisted
he tell me everything. It was the only
time in my life I had noticed him hesitate about anything, but he finally
agreed to tell me the rest if he could take a shower first. I was already under the sink before he could
get into the shower and he did something he’d never done before.
He opened the sink cabinet and spoke softly, “Now son, I want you to
stay underneath there until I tell you otherwise. No speaking or questions until I say it’s
okay, alright?” I think that might’ve
been the first glimpse of seeing fear in my father’s eyes. I didn’t understand so I just quietly shook
my head without a word, so he knew that I’d already agreed to stay silent. The door shut and I heard his clothes hit the
ground and the shower curtain go back.
The water turned on and I began my normal trend of listening beyond the
water.
My father never finished his shower that night. I didn’t understand why he didn’t get out
when he must’ve heard the men come in. I
heard them almost as soon as the shower started, so he must’ve heard them
right? There were at least three sets of
footsteps. I was so confused when the bathroom door blasted open with a thug’s
boot and I didn’t hear any response from my dad. The room was very narrow so he could’ve taken
them one or two at a time, but the careful steps of the thugs proved that they
were cautiously moving on the shower.
The curtain was ripped from its rod and no commotion followed. It was the quietest moment of my life and the
next thing I heard was the most devastating.
Somehow they’d gotten to him before they entered the apartment because
the next thing I hear is the sound of the lifeless body I used to know as my
father being taken from the bathtub. I
heard him being dragged passed the sink, through the living room, out the front
door, down the hallway to the stairwell, and the lack of forgiveness they
showed my father let me hear the sound of his head smacking each of the stairs
as they tossed him down.
***
© 2011 S. T. Lakata
Stay tuned for another free preview within the week. New Middleport: The Senses of Weiland Kershaw is available on the Kindle and Nook.
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